6:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Wednesday, March 27 (2013), Hughes Formal

Join the students of Alternative Break Guatemala in welcoming indigenous activist Lolita Chavez to American University. Lolita is a spokesperson for the K'iche' People's Council: an organization that represents 87 Mayan communities in Guatemala. In an event co-sponsored by the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission, Lolita will discuss her communities' struggle for self-determination and control over their land and natural resources. She will also talk about the violence and intimidation activists – particularly women – suffer at the hands of multinational companies and their employees, and the government's criminalization of community leaders for their resistance.